Primary school: public or private?

[dreamer80]

And as many have said some public school are fantastic with great teacher, great facilities and achieve great results. While some private schools are a waste of money…sorry not sure of the name but the most expensive private school in the Queensland (I believe it is at Southport) when is came to OP in 2005, there wern't even in the top 100! So if you are considering sending your child to a private school…do your research!!

Some thing we found and looked for when researching and comparing our local and private schools:

LOTE: Ifound JPC in Brisbane integrates Japanese into classes from Prep, to begin with they just learn about Japanese cultural, origami then move onto language…while Kuraby (our local public school) introduces German in year 4.
Instrumental Music: JPC introduces piano or violin lesson is Prep, whereas Kuraby introduces instrument music lesson from Years 4.
For boys: I also found JPC has a specific program focussing on boys literacy skills in the early years.
Swimming: This really is a personal opinion, but living in Australia, I feel this is a vital skill all children should learn. JPC integrates swimming lesson from Prep into their Physical Education classes, the classes are taught in a dedicated Junior School pool.
Family involvement: We found that JPC had a lot more activities and events to involve both my husband and I and extend family into the school community. As an example they have family picnics and grandparents day. The junior school also offers parental education seminars to keep the parents educated and informed on what is beings taught in the classroom and some seminars are on general parenting topics relevant to the age of the children.
Technology: With the way in which technology is advancing so rapidly, I think that is an important part of education. JPC has interactive white boards in all junior school classes and from year 4 all students are issued with a notebook computer, which is integrated into the curriculum. We found Kuraby computer/technology education quite good; each class had 4 or more computers in them. (I believe they had recently received a government grant)
Christmas & Easter celebrations: This may seem a strange thing to look for, but I had been told that some school now don’t celebrate holidays such Christmas as it may offend people of other religions…sad but true. I am not religious as such, but do celebrate Christmas and Easter and feel it is important for my children to enjoy and celebrate such holidays… I know I always enjoyed Easter bonnet parades and would like my children to principate and enjoy them as well as other holiday celebrations.

Some private school’s are worth the money and can provide be a great advantage for your child, while some or not different to a public school and some public schools are better than some private schools! So look around and ask lots and lots of questions!

I am sorry this post has ended up so long… Hope it make some sense...haha

[vanillabean]

I would like to know why people send their children to a public primary school and and then a private high school. This to me does not really make much sense.

[dreamer80]

I would like to know why people send their children to a public primary school and and then a private high school. This to me does not really make much sense.

As many private schools don’t offer junior classes...As an example in Brisbane-

-Brisbane Grammar: Year 6 onwards
-Brisbane Girls Grammar: Year 8 onwards
-Grace Luthern: Year 8 onwards
-Hillbrook Anglican School: Year 8 onwards
-Anglican Church Grammar School: Years 8 onwards
-Stuartholme School: Year 8 onwards

[Ffrenchknickers]

would like to know why people send their children to a public primary school and and then a private high school. This to me does not really make much sense.

I would say there would be a myriad of reasons, the most obvious one being as Dreamer said above.

ALso, it may just depend on the school,not whether it is public or private....it could be class size...it could be location...it coul be religious affiliation...it could be financial too, some may prefer a private school but only be able to afford it in later years for whatever reason.

For us, we are homeschooling for primary school and putting their names down at a private Christian school for highschool to keep our options open. We will also consider one particular local public school that we like alot...we may continue homeschooling also...who knows?